Tutorial

Did you catch those pom pom and tassel keychains at my Craft Night? Well, they were a super easy DIY favor I gave to everyone who joined in all of the making!

When we returned from vacation in Cabo, Mexico, I was so inspired by all of the colors in their handmade pom pom and tassel items that I went straight to the craft store and picked up these yarn skeins with super bright color gradients.

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Now, you don’t “need” to buy a pom pom and tassel maker BUT I did try and make them using the hacks you can find online and let’s just say I was happy to invest the <$10 for each of these items to make my life a little easier.

The directions on the back of the pom pom and tassel maker packages were fairly good but if you prefer to try your own method, Pinterest has some great tutorials.

When you make your tassel, make sure to leave enough string on top to add your pom pom and any beads you want to use. You will also be tying the lobster clasp to that string so make sure to factor that into the length as well.

Thread your string into a large needle.

Add your beads and use the needle to push the string through the center of the pom pom.

Add more beads on top if you wish.

Double-knot the end of your string to the jump ring.

Attach the jump ring to the lobster clasp.

*I did not do this, but would suggest adding a little hot glue to my knot on the jump ring as mine already untied. But I think adding the glue should do the trick. Thank goodness for the glue gun!

These keychains look especially good attached to your black bags because of how much the colors pop! Add them to your beach bag, your car, your purse or backpack or give them away to friends!

I don’t know what it is but I love mini bouquets! They are such a sweet, little sentiment to give someone and are perfect for those “just because” occasions. If you hate the clear plastic wrapping as much as I do, here is a super easy way to dress up your mini bouquet.Grab a sheet of your favorite printed scrapbook paper. Glitter and double-sided paper would be super fun too! (Have you heard about my scrapbook paper addiction???) Turn it over and fold up one corner.Place your bouquet on top and start to wrap the sides around the bouquet.Once you fold over the last side, fasten with a piece of clear tape or even a pretty printed label or sticker. You could even wrap a ribbon around it if you wanted to get extra fancy.That’s it! Really! Pretty market flowers that no longer look like they were from the market.

Kelly is a mother to two beautiful girls and a self-proclaimed “maker of beautiful messes.” She has been crafting in one form or another for most of her life and gets the most joy out of watching that same creative spirit growing in her girls. She loves unicorns, cake, peonies and anything that glitters. Her trusty hot glue gun never leaves her side.

In my house, there is a lot of pretend play and dress up happening constantly. My oldest daughter is 6 and quite the “girly-girl.” I swear, I have no idea where she gets this from. No seriously, it wasn’t me. I wear only flip flops, have a handful of dresses shoved in the back of my closet and have been using the same purse for the last 3 years. My daughter however…she’s obsessed with dresses, purses, shoes, and even makeup! She has an entire dress-up wardrobe bursting with princess dresses, purses, shoes, wands, tiara’s, you name it. Nothing makes her happier than to put on a fancy dress with accessories and prance about the house, showing off to anyone who will pay attention.

Her current obsession is with purses. Which she will carefully pack with chapstick, bracelets, toys and anything else that will fit, before we leave the house. She will then last a total of 5 minutes carrying her purse around before getting tired of it and wanting someone else to hold it for her. So now purses have been limited to dress-up play at home only.

This project was inspired by my little girly-girl, who clearly is in need of yet another purse. It’s perfect for playtime and gives me all those summertime feels!

If you can trace, cut and weld a hot glue gun, this project will be easy as pie!

Start by printing out and preparing your templates.

On your premium pink felt you’ll be cutting out two of the Body Templates and Feather Templates. The number of Feather Templates will depend on how long you need the purse to be as this acts as the strap. I used 10 for mine.

On your black felt you’ll be cutting out the Black Beak Template.

On your white felt you’ll be cutting out the White Beak Template.

On your pink glitter felt you’ll be cutting out two of the Wing Templates, the Head Template and the Neck Template.

Once you have all of your pieces cut out, you are ready to begin assembly!

Begin by taking your Head piece and hot gluing the Black Beak portion on top, lining up the edges.

Next, hot glue the White Beak portion onto the Head, making sure it butts right up against the Black Beak and lines up on the edges.

Look at that fabulous Flamingo head you just made! That Flamingo needs a neck, so go ahead and grab your Neck piece and hot glue it down onto the back of the Head.

Now we’re going to jump over to the body, which will be just as fabulous! So set the head and neck piece aside for just a minute. We’ll come back to it later.

Take your two Body pieces and line them up together but don’t hot glue them just yet! First, you want to line up your Wings on either side of the body, so that the tail feather portion meets up just beyond the end of the body. Make sure they are even on both sides of the Body before gluing down. I also drew some designs onto my Wings to give them more character, so go crazy and be creative with it.

Keeping those two Body pieces together and lined up, grab your Head and Neck piece and glue down the other end of the Neck in between the two Body pieces. Starting from the Neck, glue just the very bottom of the Body pieces together, all the way to where the tail feathers on the Wings meet up. This is where you could also sew if you preferred, but I’m a fan of how fast and easy the hot glue is and I think it holds just as well.

You’re going to leave the top open, so you can place all the goodies in there, but feel free to add a button, snap or zipper if you’re super talented!

For this next part, you’ll need your little model, to determine how long to make the strap. Start off with at least 6 feathers and glue them together, flipping every other feather over so you have a staggered pattern. Add as many more feathers as you need for the desired length.

You’re going to glue one end of the strap to the head of the Flamingo and the other end to the body. You might need your little model again to make sure everything lays nicely. Or that could just be me obsessively checking and getting eye rolls from my daughter. Just go with it!

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I'm Melanie, a stay at home mommy recently turned small business owner. I believe that creating is therapeutic and is something everyone can do. Sunny Southern California is where I call home and I share my life with a wonderful husband, daughter and twin boys.Read more...

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Melanie is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. In other words, it helps to keep me making and sharing great tutorials with you!